Still not pregnant: When do you go to gp? | Right away

Every week, Edwin de Vaal ( 48), a general practitioner in Nijmegen, answers a frequently asked or conspicuous question from his practice. This week it says: What happens when you knock on the door of your GP with an unfulfilled desire to have children?

When can you get to your GP if you can’t get pregnant?

“Basically, you can always arrive at the doctor’s office. But if you want a baby and you can’t do it right away, you don’t have to go to the doctor right away. Especially if you have been using contraceptives such as the barbed pill for a long time, your body sometimes needs to get used to it again. After one year, about four out of five couples are pregnant.”

And if it didn’t work out after a year, do you have to go to the doctor?

“Not necessarily, because there is nothing to fear. But if you are worried, you should consider visiting your GP. Then you come together. I still regularly only get the woman in the office when it comes to an unfulfilled desire to have children. While having a child is something you want together.”

What do you say to the couples who report during the consultation?

“First of all, we discuss, love love ourselves, but also, for example, previous pregnancies, stress, drug use, work and whether the cycle is regular.”

“Not everyone is equally well informed. For example, a woman is fertile only for about twenty-four to forty-eight hours a month. There are many couples who make love around ovulation daily. Sometimes even several times a day to increase the likelihood of pregnancy.”

“In reality, the chances of that are actually lower. Sperm need each other to reach the egg. With too often lovemaking, the amount of sperm per ejaculation is lower, and sperm can live for up to five days. That’s why every two or three days is better. That’s when love is still fun.”

What is the most common cause?

“For 30 percent, the cause is in the woman, 30 percent in the man and for another 30 percent from the combination of both. No cause can be found in 10 percent of cases.”

“Stress plays a bigger role than people think. Especially if you’ve been trying to get pregnant for a while, sex gets some awkward. There is a lot of negative tension, partly because it has to happen at a certain point in time. I regularly see couples who suddenly get pregnant on holiday. Or if they have decided to stop to have a baby.”

When do you send people to the gynaecologist?

“I always do this in consultation. After another year of trying, via the shelt of the couples becomes pregnant. The general practitioner can already examine the quality of the seed and check with a test whether the woman has experienced chlamydia. This can be a cause of infertility.”